


30 Years On

by robron_til_the_end



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Long Lost/Secret Relatives, M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-10 07:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11687103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robron_til_the_end/pseuds/robron_til_the_end
Summary: Aaron sees Robert hugging a stranger, a beautiful woman. Aaron's shocked because he thought things were going well between them, but then... It's not like Robert hasn't got form for affairs after all is it? Who is this woman? Aaron's determined to find out.(Give it a chance, no cheating here!!)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying something very different here, I hope someone likes it. This ignores pretty much everything from mid March onwards, but is set summer 2017. In this AU, Rebecca vanished to discover her personality so the "incident" is not an issue. Aaron did still go to prison but the current hell we’re in didn’t happen.

Aaron stood leaning against the wall of the coffee shop. The heat was blistering for Yorkshire, and everyone was packed out in the cafe, attempting to get some shade, so Aaron stood outside, tapping away on his phone. Technically he was skiving from work, but he didn’t care. He was his own boss, if he wanted to waste time on an iced tea in Hotten over lunch, he absolutely would. Plus, if he stayed in the village he didn’t think he’d ever be able to get over the amount Bob would make fun of him for so much as asking. Robert had his fancy coffee, Aaron could drink an iced tea if it suited him. He just didn’t much fancy the mocking that would go with it.

Which is when he saw Robert on the other side of the street. He’d said he’d had meetings today, so seeing him in town wasn’t the most surprising thing. What was, was the woman he was hugging as she got into the taxi waiting for her. Aaron couldn’t move for a second, stunned into shock. He never thought… She looked to be in her thirties, brunette, hair almost down to her waist actually, short, thin… Robert’s type, Aaron thought completely unfairly and unjustified. Robert watched as the taxi drove away and Aaron snapped himself out of it. No point just He called him.

Aaron watched as Robert took his phone out of his leather jacket. That was another clue, Robert never wore that when he was going to business meetings. He looked at the name, smiled Aaron saw, then answered it. “Hi,” he said warmly, which Aaron hoped he wouldn’t do if he was having an affair. Who was he kidding, not like Robert hadn’t had the practise.

“Hey,” Aaron said. “I wondered if you had time to meet up for lunch? I’m in Hotten on a scrap run (this was true, the fact it had been sitting in the van for an hour plus was irrelevant) and I thought… you might have time?”

“Er…” Robert looked at his watch, Aaron saw him from across the street. “I really can’t, I… sorry. Look, I’ll make dinner tonight for us. I want to talk to you.”

“Oh?” Aaron asked. “About what?”

“Er… we’ll get into it later.”

“Is it bad?”

“No, it’s just… different. Anyway, I do have to go, I’ve got the Thompson account I need to sort out. Should be an early finish.”

“Right,” Aaron said hollowly.

“Love you.” Aaron hung up without replying. He wasn’t about to be made a mug over.

* * *

 

Aaron had wasted time at the scrap yard, not really looking forward to going home. Robert cooking for him, Robert wanting to talk to him after Aaron had just caught him out in a lie. None of that looks good. So he was putting off the inevitable argument, because he wasn’t about to take this lying down.

When he eventually got home to the Mill, he took in a breath because whatever Robert was cooking smelt delicious. He could cook well when he took the time to do it, it’s just usually they’re too busy.

“Hi,” Robert said warmly, kissing his cheek in greeting. Aaron felt cold.

“Look, I’m not doing this Robert,” Aaron said tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose. He wasn’t dancing around the issue. “I saw you in Hotten today. Putting a very beautiful woman into a cab.”

Robert didn’t deny it. He had no intention to. “Yes, I was,” Robert said, passing Aaron a beer at the same time taking his glass of wine, guessing this was going to be an argument.

“I’m not sharing you, not for anyone, not any more,” Aaron said heavily.

“Do you trust me?” Robert said levelly, looking at him. Aaron sighed. Before he’d seen that scenario, he’d have said yes. But it was hard to trust Robert when his eyes told him differently.

“Yes,” Aaron said eventually. “But it’s difficult when I know what I saw. Don't even try to tell me I'm wrong.”

“Sit down,” Robert said calmly. He did, Robert turning the oven down because dinner was going to have to wait. “I’m not cheating on you.” Aaron knew what Robert looked like when he was lying and this wasn’t it.

“Then what’s going on?” Aaron asked. “Something is.”

“Right, okay,” Robert said. “I’ve been thinking, especially when Andy left the way he did last year. I’ve got Vic. She’s pretty much the only family I have… that I know. Losing Andy like that… I thought, I want to know the rest of my family. So I’ve been quietly looking.”

“Looking for what?”

“My mother died when I was a few months old. My biological mother, I never knew her. Didn’t know to even miss her, because Sarah’s my mother. She always was, but I’m running out of family Aaron. I feel like I miss that connection so I went looking. And I’ve found someone.”

“So that woman…”

“She’s a relative of mine, yes,” Robert said. “I was going to tell you tonight. I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t know if looking would help, I didn’t know if I’d find anything. Anyone.”

“Oh,” Aaron said quietly.

“Your family is huge. I’ve got Vic and pretty much no one else.”

“You’ve got me and Liv,” Aaron said, though he had a small smile on his face. He knew what Robert meant.

“Her name’s Louise.” Robert took a sip of his wine. “I’m not lying to you, and I wasn’t hiding it. Up until this week there was nothing to tell.”

“You could have,” Aaron said, taking his hand gently. “I would have understood, I would have supported you.”

“I know,” Robert said. “I’m so used to doing things on my own. I’ve never really had someone to turn to, to rely on. So talking to you, or anyone really, about myself. It’s hard. But I’m here and I’m talking. And I was going to before you caught me out in Hotten.

“What’s she like?”

“Loud,” Robert said with a smile. “She wouldn’t shut up once she got going.”

“How are you related to her?” Aaron asked.

“I’ve got a half sister, Sandie who’s quite a bit older than me. Louise is her daughter, she was adopted, but biologically…”

“She’s your niece?”

“Yes,” Robert said. “That sounds so weird,” he added, shaking his head. “I’m not used to it yet.”

“She didn’t look much younger than you,” Aaron said.

“She’s… actually a few years older than me,” Robert said. “Don’t,” he added, seeing Aaron’s face light up as if to make fun of him.

“Have you told her about me?” Aaron asked.

“Not exactly,” Robert said, seeing Aaron stiffen at that. “You didn’t come up until I was saying goodbye to her. She saw the wedding ring and asked after my wife. I didn’t have the time to correct her, all right? She said that when she was driving off.”

“Oh, Robert…”

“I’m not used to correcting people, all right?” Robert said defensively, hating Aaron being disappointed in him. “She made an assumption, I didn’t set her straight, don’t read more into it than that.”

“Okay,” Aaron said after a moment, accepting that. People did assume, he'd had it with scrap contacts already. They saw the ring, they assumed a wife.

“I love you,” Robert said. “It’s just sometimes… I feel like the outsider so often. I’m not sure if I’m explaining it properly, why I need to find her. Them.”

“Can I meet her?” Aaron asked.

“Of course I want you to meet her,” Robert said so quickly that something in Aaron relaxed. He wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed of him then. Aaron leaned across the table and kissed him softly.

“So what’re you cooking?” Aaron asked with a smile and Robert sighed. He hadn’t known quite how to start telling Aaron that, and he was glad. He didn’t like lying to Aaron, even by omission.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the downfalls of never planning anything I write is that I don't know how it's going to go. I thought this would be a longer multi chapter, but it's only going to be 2 now. Thank you for the encouragement and I hope you like this chapter too.

“When you told me you were in the middle of nowhere, you didn’t warn me about the suspension on my car.” Louise said, smiling slightly. Robert stood outside the café, watching her. It was good to see her, it had been a couple of weeks since meeting her in Hotten. She apparently had quite a busy life.

“It’s Yorkshire, that’s implied. How are you?”

“What, for a long lost relative you didn’t know existed six months ago?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “I’m good,” she said, softer this time. “What are you treating me to?” she asked as they went into the café.

“Lunch?”

“Please,” she said.

* * *

 

“Why didn’t you look for us?” Robert asked, pushing his plate aside about forty minutes later when he‘d finished eating. “Your birth family?”

“I did,” she said. “When I was eighteen, but my mother… your elder sister, she died a few years before.” Robert nodded, when he started looking into his mothers side of the family he’d found that out. It’s not news, a car crash. “And because she was dead, she couldn’t exactly give permission for her details to be passed along. It got difficult and I… gave up. I have a family, I thought my curiosity would just have to wait.”

“Until I came along,” Robert said.

“Yeah.” Louise smiled. “Who didn’t seem to take no for an answer.”

“No, I don’t tend to,” Robert said with a glint in his eyes.

Louise looked up as Cain walked in, heading towards the counter asking Bob for a coffee. And she kept looking, most definitely interested in what she was seeing.

“No,” Robert said instantly. “Don’t even think about it, that’s one of my in-laws.”

“So?” Louise said. “I can’t have a little fun?”

“Louise…”

“Rob, I was looking, nothing more. Jeez. At least I've never been boring and married.”

“I’m not boring,” Robert said indignantly.

“So… are you ever going to introduce me to your wife?” Louise asked. “I don’t even have a name.”

“Yes. No. I mean…” Robert stuttered. “I don’t have a wife, I have a husband.”

“Oh!” she said. Then started spluttering. “Sorry, I’m surprised. I didn’t think you were gay. You don’t look like the type. Not that there is a type, obviously, I… I’m going to shut up now and stop spouting offensive crap.”

“Good plan,” Robert said with a smile. “I’m not gay, I’m bisexual. And I’m in love with my husband.”

“Name?”

“Aaron.”

“Are you happy?”

“Mostly,” Robert said. “Life still gets in the way sometimes, but we… fit together, I guess.”

“Good. And I want to meet him.”

“Now?” Robert asked from the look on her face.

“Why not?” she asked. “Hiding me?”

“Hiding him,” Robert said more accurately. “I’ll call him, I don’t know if he’s still at work or at home.” Robert did, and it took two rings for Aaron to pick up.

“Hey, how’d it go?” Aaron asked.

“She wants to meet you,” Robert said. “Where are you?”

“Er…” Robert can read that silence.

“You’re skiving work to watch the football?” Robert guessed.

“Yeah, but this is more important,” Aaron said. “I’m at home.”

“Is it…”

“It’s not a mess,” Aaron said, and Robert could hear the smile in his voice.

“Good. Love you.”

“Yeah, you too,” Aaron said. Robert hung up and looked at Louise. 

“I live down the street,” Robert said.

“Your face lit up when you talked to him,” Louise noticed.

“Shut up,” Robert said, still smiling.

* * *

The door at The Mill was already ajar, the result of the hot weather they’d been having lately and Robert went in, hearing the football on the telly. “Aaron?” He saw his husband on the sofa, muting the TV and getting up.

“Louise, I’m guessing,” Aaron said, smiling at her.

“Hi,” she said shaking his hand in greeting. “So you’re Aaron. You’re not what I pictured.”

“What, prefer it if I were a woman?” Aaron questioned.

“Aaron,” Robert criticized.

“I didn’t say that,” she said. “I meant you’re younger than I thought. Though being honest with me would have helped, Robert.”

“I didn’t lie.” Louise sighed, then smiled at Aaron.

“So, how did you two meet?” Louise asked.

“I’ll let Robert tell you that one,” Aaron said.

“Because it paints me in such a good light,” Robert said sarcastically.

“He couldn’t resist me,” Aaron said and Robert laughed.

“That’s pretty much true,” Robert agreed. He kissed Aaron hello softly, having forgotten that and Aaron smiled.

“How long’ve you been married?” Louise asked, spying their wedding photo on the wall.

“Since February,” Robert said.

“Wanted to do it before I went to prison,” Aaron chipped in. No point in hiding it after all.

“What were you in prison for?” she asked, clear that she was surprised.

“GBH,” Aaron said. “I’m not a violent person, I was… stressed.”

“Okay,” she said, holding her hands up. “I’m not being nosey. Or any more than usual, anyway. I mind my own business.” Robert snorted. Based on what he knew of her so far, that was highly unlikely.

“Meaning what?”

“You looked like you were eyeing up Cain,” Robert said, more for Aaron’s benefit who laughed.

“I was looking!” Louise snapped. “God, it’s not like I was suggesting eloping with him.”

“He’s older than you,” Aaron said, like that was a reason.

“You’re seriously telling me you don’t appreciate a little age difference?” Louise asked, eyes flicking between both men. Aaron and Robert caught each others eyes and Aaron grinned.

“Yeah, okay, maybe you have a point,” Aaron said and she winked in agreement, making him laugh.

 


End file.
